-8-
Freedom - Hagar or Sarah?
The Galatians had been convinced by men who came from Jerusalem, that the gospel that they had received from the Apostle Paul was all wrong.
These men, claiming to have had authority from the Jerusalem church, were apparently ‘slick talkers’.
And they had a mission: Destroy Paul and his work. Apparently they are unforgiving of Paul’s past life. In the past, Paul had been an enemy of Christians and, on top of that, he was not a Jew. He was a despised Roman. These Jewish Christian teachers were unforgiving.
Their plan to destroy Paul’s work included using more than one approach.
1. They attacked Paul’s credibility by saying that he was not actually an apostle.
2. And further, they taught that to be saved, one must accept Jesus as the Saviour, plus be circumcised and keep the commandments.
3. They also implied that the Galatians must have misunderstood Paul in the first place, because, (they said,) even Paul taught the very same things they did.
I want to point out something very important here.
I first want to emphasize that these teachers were wrong to say that law-keeping was necessary to being saved. But I must also point out that everyone who accepted this wrong gospel would be pretty nice, well-behaved people, since they would all be obeying the law. They would be loving God (that’s the first commandment). Each would be loving their neighbors as himself, etc. etc.
So what is the problem? It is that these teachers are confusing standing with walking. They are confusing the foundation, with building on it. And by not making this distinction they are creating a new gospel.
Paul is now going to talk about our ‘walk’ and I will try to make the difference between standing and walking very clear.
First I want to talk about ‘standing’.
We used to sing this hymn, ‘On Christ the solid rock I stand’. Where did these old words come from? Maybe from Psalm 40.
Psalm 40:1 I waited patiently for the LORD; And He inclined to me, And heard my cry.
2 He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, Out of the miry clay, And set my feet upon a rock, And established my steps.
3 He has put a new song in my mouth—Praise to our God; Many will see it and fear, And will trust in the LORD.
These verses are absolutely beautiful. David, in just a few words, tells the whole Gospel story. He covers it all, from being lost, without hope, condemned, sinking in the quicksand of sin … to walking with God, singing his praises, and our lives being a testimony for all to see.
Notice, the journey goes first from the pit to the rock. That is entirely God’s work … lifting us out of the miry clay. The only thing we had to do at that point was to holler for help. David says, “He heard my cry”. Paul would say, the only thing you had to do was to believe. In Romans 10.13 he says, he that calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
Once our feet land on that rock, we can say “On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand”.
What I think I should address here, is a bit of confusion some Christians seem to have regarding judgment day.
Regarding the teaching that Jesus paid for all our sin on the cross, some take this to mean that now we can do no wrong. Well, let me clarify that ... what they actually claim is, that since we are ‘dressed in the righteousness of Christ,’ when the judgment day finally comes, God, the judge, looks over at us and only sees the righteousness of Jesus. He sees no sin at all.
Here is the confusion - in this kind of thinking there has been no clarification of whether we are being judged for our ‘standing’ or being judged for our ‘walk’ - or maybe for both.
The fact that we will be standing before God at the judgment seat of Christ at all, means that we are saved. The judgment is not to find out whether we are saved or not.
He forgave all our past sins at Calvary. We believed in Jesus … that is faith, and for this reason alone we will be standing at the judgment bar one day. Everyone who will be standing before Him is a saved, born again believer. No unbelievers will be at that judgment. Their judgment comes much later.
So what I am trying to underscore here, is that the question will not be asked if we should be let into heaven or not. The very fact that we show up there is proof that we are his child.
So if the judgment is not to determine if we are saved or not, then what is it for? Here is the purpose. We will stand there to give an account of our ‘walk’.
The Psalmist of Psalm 40 said, And set my feet upon a rock, And established my steps.
3 He has put a new song in my mouth—Praise to our God ...
This illustrates what our lives are like … or should be like, after we have been saved (after we were pulled out of the miry clay)
After we were lifted out of the quicksand, after he washed off all the mud and stood us on the rock, there, before us, was a pathway for each one of us.
There is a path to walk, He establishes our steps. He puts a song in our mouths. A song of joy for having been rescued from the penalty of sin. Many will hear that song and see our joy. Some will turn to Christ because of it.
That is our walk. And my walk with God and your walk with God is unique. God calls you to serve a certain way and he calls me to serve a certain way.
But I may balk at something he asks me to do. I might think it is just too much and I might say ‘No’.
Unless I repent of that, ask forgiveness and continue down the path that he has chosen for me, I will have to face my stubbornness, my disobedience one day at the judgment seat.
Is the judgment something that should cause concern? Not really. He loves us with intense love.
He charts out a path for each of us to do our part of accomplishing his will on earth as it is done in heaven. And for that he wants to reward us.
He tells us to lay up our treasures in heaven … and on judgment day he will be awarding them to us.
But if I have failed to do the task that he assigned me, He will get someone else to do it. In that sense, I will see someone else being given the ‘crown’ that he wanted to give me.
I believe that is the gist of the following verse:
Re 3:11 "Behold, I am coming quickly! Hold fast what you have, that no one may take your crown.
Paul has been trying to make the Galatians understand that their ‘standing’ in Christ is a done deal. They do not have to work for it.
But Paul is also teaching them that they are to walk in the Spirit day by day.
The false teachers were implying that a person’s day to day walk would determine if they will be considered ‘saved’ at the end of the line.
Paul is clearly saying that is not so. Yes we will be judged and rewarded for our walk, but the ‘walk’ does not save us.
To the Corinthians Paul put it this way:
11 ¶ For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
12 Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw --
13 each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done.
14 If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward.
15 If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.
As we have just read … being on the foundation is salvation. Building on the foundation results in rewards or lack of rewards.
With all of this in mind, I want to talk about freedom.
Let’s read from Galatians 4:17 to 5:1
17 ¶ Oh, I know how keen these men are to win you over, but their motives are all wrong. They would like to see you and me separated altogether, and have you all to themselves.
18 It is always a fine thing that men should take an interest in you, whether I’m there or not, provided their motives are good.
19 ¶ Oh, my dear children, I feel the pangs of childbirth all over again till Christ be formed within you.
20 and how I long to be with you now! Perhaps I could then alter my tone. As it is, I honestly don’t know how to deal with you.
These 4 verses are from the Philips Translation. This is Paul, just for a moment, reflecting on these false teachers. And then he moves on. (the ESV translation)
21 ¶ Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law?
22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman.
23 But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise.
24 Now this may be interpreted allegorically: these women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar.
25 Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. (any Galatians with Jewish backgrounds would absolutely hate to hear this! Connected to Hagar … mother of the Ishmaelites … and connected to Jerusalem? Paul is intentionally implying that the Jews of his day are slaves … slaves to the law, just as Hagar was a slave to Sarah.)
26 But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother.
27 For it is written, "Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear; break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor! For the children of the desolate one will be more than those of the one who has a husband."
28 Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise.
29 But just as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so also it is now.
30 But what does the Scripture say? "Cast out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman shall not inherit with the son of the free woman."
31 So, brothers, we are not children of the slave but of the free woman.
1 ¶ For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
So let’s see if we can put all this into perspective.
We have been pulled up out of the quicksand. That is, we were sinking because the Law of God said we were lawbreakers. As long as we floundered around in the mud (trying to keep the law) things kept getting worse. Finally we called for help.
God immediately pulled us up and out of the miry clay. He set us on the Rock. The Rock of our salvation is Jesus.
But then he pointed us to the path on which we are supposed to walk. And said two things.
“You are set free!” (to do whatever you want? Yes and no.) “Now walk in the Spirit.”
This ‘freedom’ reminds me of a story I was a part of while living in the Cariboo.
One day a young man and his wife dropped into my church office to talk with me. I will give their history as briefly as possible:
They had moved to a part of central BC and were living pretty much a ‘hippy’ lifestyle. Freedom is a word that really fits here.
They discovered a group of colony style Mennonites in the area, were befriended by them … and they ultimately trusted Jesus as Savior.
As time went by, the couple felt called to do missionary work in the Philippines. After a few years of being on the mission field they were visited by Elders from their home church.
These elders looked around and then took back a report to their church board … who re-called them from the mission field and said that they could no longer serve as missionaries.
Why? I discovered much from my visit with this couple, who were now in my office, disillusioned and hurt.
This particular denomination of Mennonites were governed by the board of elders. These elders developed policies of life and conduct that were forced upon the people just like laws.
Their belief system said that they were to live apart from the world and be separate from them in every sense.
The elders had to decide, for example, if it were permissible to own a vehicle. The answer was, Yes, but only if they were to be used in a practical sense and must not ‘minister to their pride’.
So a church member could buy a car... but not one with a ‘loaded’ trim package. In the days when fancy cars had two-toned paint jobs … theirs must only be of a single color and not too ‘bright’.
Some young men in the church added running boards to their pick-up trucks, and were promptly told by the elders to remove them.
Failing to comply with elders resulted in being ex-communicated from the church. Shunned, they called it.
That is just one example. As new products came on the market, the elders would consider and discuss each one and decide what to say about it in their large 3-ring binder of rules.
But what happened in the Philippines? The ‘law’ that was broken had to do with dress code. The women were required to wear a small white head covering … and a dress of a certain pattern or ‘cut’.
The pattern that the women used in the Philippines was OK. It was the same pattern used back home. But this missionary couple, because of the much hotter and more humid climate, felt that the dress material should be lighter than the material used for the dresses back home. As far as they were concerned, this was a smart move. There was no problem with immodesty.
However when the elders saw it, they said, "Because you did not check with us first … you must use only the approved material for the dresses".
Apparently the disagreement was great enough that the board called them off from the field.
When they got home, because they did not apologize, they were ‘shunned’. Put out of the church.
They moved to the town I was pastoring in and wanted 'my take' on this issue according to God’s word … and laws.
To shorten the story just a bit … I talked about the ‘freedom’ that we have in our ‘walk’ with God.
I made the statement that the elders from their old church should burn the policy book.
Their response? “Oh no, you could not do that! If that were to happen all the young people would not be able to handle the freedom. They would just go crazy!”
Basically I said, ‘You just have to let them go.’
I shared this verse with them:
Hebrews 8:10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel After those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, And on their heart also will I write them: And I will be to them a God, And they shall be to me a people: (Philips)
Notice what I have underlined. God’s law was first chiseled into stone. Then the first five books of Moses were written and became known as ‘the law’.
This way of life for the Jews became law. Jesus nailed the law (as a way of life to be enforced), onto His cross.
Colossians 2:13 ¶ You, who were spiritually dead because of your sins and your uncircumcision, God has now made to share in the very life of Christ! He has forgiven you all your sins:
14 he has utterly wiped out the written evidence of broken commandments which always hung over our heads, and has completely annulled it by nailing it to the cross. (Philips)
The written law, the enforced law … was nailed to the cross. But in its place, God’s law (His way of life for us) is written in our hearts.
What is the difference? The law no longer is something you HAVE to do. When it is in your heart it is something that you WANT to do.
I asked this couple a question … "Would not the parents of these young people, who you think would just go absolutely wild without the ‘written law’ over their heads, would not the parents want to know whether or not God really has the hearts of their children?"
If God’s law, indeed, is written on their hearts, they will not go wild. If they do go wild, then you know that they really are not saved."
It is better to find that out early on, so that you know how to pray for them, and how to talk to them."
I think they agreed. But then surprised me with this:
They both agreed that everything in that binder should be burned except the part about women wearing a little white head covering.
I smiled and said, "No, even that part needed to go into the fire".
I am happy to say that they made a huge change in their lives from that point forward.
So God has put a pathway in front of you. It is the path of freedom. But at the same time, he calls on you to live by the law that He writes on your heart.
I will close this chapter with a verse that we will look at more closely in the next chapter.
5:16 I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
So next we will look at two extremes that Paul shows us,
- Walking in the flesh, lives that can be filled with a whole list of terrible practices
- Walking in the Spirit - filled with wonderful ‘fruit’
Freedom to walk in the Spirit. It’s a daily decision, really. Paul will bring this out in the next chapter.
These men, claiming to have had authority from the Jerusalem church, were apparently ‘slick talkers’.
And they had a mission: Destroy Paul and his work. Apparently they are unforgiving of Paul’s past life. In the past, Paul had been an enemy of Christians and, on top of that, he was not a Jew. He was a despised Roman. These Jewish Christian teachers were unforgiving.
Their plan to destroy Paul’s work included using more than one approach.
1. They attacked Paul’s credibility by saying that he was not actually an apostle.
2. And further, they taught that to be saved, one must accept Jesus as the Saviour, plus be circumcised and keep the commandments.
3. They also implied that the Galatians must have misunderstood Paul in the first place, because, (they said,) even Paul taught the very same things they did.
I want to point out something very important here.
I first want to emphasize that these teachers were wrong to say that law-keeping was necessary to being saved. But I must also point out that everyone who accepted this wrong gospel would be pretty nice, well-behaved people, since they would all be obeying the law. They would be loving God (that’s the first commandment). Each would be loving their neighbors as himself, etc. etc.
So what is the problem? It is that these teachers are confusing standing with walking. They are confusing the foundation, with building on it. And by not making this distinction they are creating a new gospel.
Paul is now going to talk about our ‘walk’ and I will try to make the difference between standing and walking very clear.
First I want to talk about ‘standing’.
We used to sing this hymn, ‘On Christ the solid rock I stand’. Where did these old words come from? Maybe from Psalm 40.
Psalm 40:1 I waited patiently for the LORD; And He inclined to me, And heard my cry.
2 He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, Out of the miry clay, And set my feet upon a rock, And established my steps.
3 He has put a new song in my mouth—Praise to our God; Many will see it and fear, And will trust in the LORD.
These verses are absolutely beautiful. David, in just a few words, tells the whole Gospel story. He covers it all, from being lost, without hope, condemned, sinking in the quicksand of sin … to walking with God, singing his praises, and our lives being a testimony for all to see.
Notice, the journey goes first from the pit to the rock. That is entirely God’s work … lifting us out of the miry clay. The only thing we had to do at that point was to holler for help. David says, “He heard my cry”. Paul would say, the only thing you had to do was to believe. In Romans 10.13 he says, he that calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
Once our feet land on that rock, we can say “On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand”.
What I think I should address here, is a bit of confusion some Christians seem to have regarding judgment day.
Regarding the teaching that Jesus paid for all our sin on the cross, some take this to mean that now we can do no wrong. Well, let me clarify that ... what they actually claim is, that since we are ‘dressed in the righteousness of Christ,’ when the judgment day finally comes, God, the judge, looks over at us and only sees the righteousness of Jesus. He sees no sin at all.
Here is the confusion - in this kind of thinking there has been no clarification of whether we are being judged for our ‘standing’ or being judged for our ‘walk’ - or maybe for both.
The fact that we will be standing before God at the judgment seat of Christ at all, means that we are saved. The judgment is not to find out whether we are saved or not.
He forgave all our past sins at Calvary. We believed in Jesus … that is faith, and for this reason alone we will be standing at the judgment bar one day. Everyone who will be standing before Him is a saved, born again believer. No unbelievers will be at that judgment. Their judgment comes much later.
So what I am trying to underscore here, is that the question will not be asked if we should be let into heaven or not. The very fact that we show up there is proof that we are his child.
So if the judgment is not to determine if we are saved or not, then what is it for? Here is the purpose. We will stand there to give an account of our ‘walk’.
The Psalmist of Psalm 40 said, And set my feet upon a rock, And established my steps.
3 He has put a new song in my mouth—Praise to our God ...
This illustrates what our lives are like … or should be like, after we have been saved (after we were pulled out of the miry clay)
After we were lifted out of the quicksand, after he washed off all the mud and stood us on the rock, there, before us, was a pathway for each one of us.
There is a path to walk, He establishes our steps. He puts a song in our mouths. A song of joy for having been rescued from the penalty of sin. Many will hear that song and see our joy. Some will turn to Christ because of it.
That is our walk. And my walk with God and your walk with God is unique. God calls you to serve a certain way and he calls me to serve a certain way.
But I may balk at something he asks me to do. I might think it is just too much and I might say ‘No’.
Unless I repent of that, ask forgiveness and continue down the path that he has chosen for me, I will have to face my stubbornness, my disobedience one day at the judgment seat.
Is the judgment something that should cause concern? Not really. He loves us with intense love.
He charts out a path for each of us to do our part of accomplishing his will on earth as it is done in heaven. And for that he wants to reward us.
He tells us to lay up our treasures in heaven … and on judgment day he will be awarding them to us.
But if I have failed to do the task that he assigned me, He will get someone else to do it. In that sense, I will see someone else being given the ‘crown’ that he wanted to give me.
I believe that is the gist of the following verse:
Re 3:11 "Behold, I am coming quickly! Hold fast what you have, that no one may take your crown.
Paul has been trying to make the Galatians understand that their ‘standing’ in Christ is a done deal. They do not have to work for it.
But Paul is also teaching them that they are to walk in the Spirit day by day.
The false teachers were implying that a person’s day to day walk would determine if they will be considered ‘saved’ at the end of the line.
Paul is clearly saying that is not so. Yes we will be judged and rewarded for our walk, but the ‘walk’ does not save us.
To the Corinthians Paul put it this way:
11 ¶ For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
12 Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw --
13 each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done.
14 If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward.
15 If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.
As we have just read … being on the foundation is salvation. Building on the foundation results in rewards or lack of rewards.
With all of this in mind, I want to talk about freedom.
Let’s read from Galatians 4:17 to 5:1
17 ¶ Oh, I know how keen these men are to win you over, but their motives are all wrong. They would like to see you and me separated altogether, and have you all to themselves.
18 It is always a fine thing that men should take an interest in you, whether I’m there or not, provided their motives are good.
19 ¶ Oh, my dear children, I feel the pangs of childbirth all over again till Christ be formed within you.
20 and how I long to be with you now! Perhaps I could then alter my tone. As it is, I honestly don’t know how to deal with you.
These 4 verses are from the Philips Translation. This is Paul, just for a moment, reflecting on these false teachers. And then he moves on. (the ESV translation)
21 ¶ Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law?
22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman.
23 But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise.
24 Now this may be interpreted allegorically: these women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar.
25 Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. (any Galatians with Jewish backgrounds would absolutely hate to hear this! Connected to Hagar … mother of the Ishmaelites … and connected to Jerusalem? Paul is intentionally implying that the Jews of his day are slaves … slaves to the law, just as Hagar was a slave to Sarah.)
26 But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother.
27 For it is written, "Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear; break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor! For the children of the desolate one will be more than those of the one who has a husband."
28 Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise.
29 But just as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so also it is now.
30 But what does the Scripture say? "Cast out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman shall not inherit with the son of the free woman."
31 So, brothers, we are not children of the slave but of the free woman.
1 ¶ For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
So let’s see if we can put all this into perspective.
We have been pulled up out of the quicksand. That is, we were sinking because the Law of God said we were lawbreakers. As long as we floundered around in the mud (trying to keep the law) things kept getting worse. Finally we called for help.
God immediately pulled us up and out of the miry clay. He set us on the Rock. The Rock of our salvation is Jesus.
But then he pointed us to the path on which we are supposed to walk. And said two things.
“You are set free!” (to do whatever you want? Yes and no.) “Now walk in the Spirit.”
This ‘freedom’ reminds me of a story I was a part of while living in the Cariboo.
One day a young man and his wife dropped into my church office to talk with me. I will give their history as briefly as possible:
They had moved to a part of central BC and were living pretty much a ‘hippy’ lifestyle. Freedom is a word that really fits here.
They discovered a group of colony style Mennonites in the area, were befriended by them … and they ultimately trusted Jesus as Savior.
As time went by, the couple felt called to do missionary work in the Philippines. After a few years of being on the mission field they were visited by Elders from their home church.
These elders looked around and then took back a report to their church board … who re-called them from the mission field and said that they could no longer serve as missionaries.
Why? I discovered much from my visit with this couple, who were now in my office, disillusioned and hurt.
This particular denomination of Mennonites were governed by the board of elders. These elders developed policies of life and conduct that were forced upon the people just like laws.
Their belief system said that they were to live apart from the world and be separate from them in every sense.
The elders had to decide, for example, if it were permissible to own a vehicle. The answer was, Yes, but only if they were to be used in a practical sense and must not ‘minister to their pride’.
So a church member could buy a car... but not one with a ‘loaded’ trim package. In the days when fancy cars had two-toned paint jobs … theirs must only be of a single color and not too ‘bright’.
Some young men in the church added running boards to their pick-up trucks, and were promptly told by the elders to remove them.
Failing to comply with elders resulted in being ex-communicated from the church. Shunned, they called it.
That is just one example. As new products came on the market, the elders would consider and discuss each one and decide what to say about it in their large 3-ring binder of rules.
But what happened in the Philippines? The ‘law’ that was broken had to do with dress code. The women were required to wear a small white head covering … and a dress of a certain pattern or ‘cut’.
The pattern that the women used in the Philippines was OK. It was the same pattern used back home. But this missionary couple, because of the much hotter and more humid climate, felt that the dress material should be lighter than the material used for the dresses back home. As far as they were concerned, this was a smart move. There was no problem with immodesty.
However when the elders saw it, they said, "Because you did not check with us first … you must use only the approved material for the dresses".
Apparently the disagreement was great enough that the board called them off from the field.
When they got home, because they did not apologize, they were ‘shunned’. Put out of the church.
They moved to the town I was pastoring in and wanted 'my take' on this issue according to God’s word … and laws.
To shorten the story just a bit … I talked about the ‘freedom’ that we have in our ‘walk’ with God.
I made the statement that the elders from their old church should burn the policy book.
Their response? “Oh no, you could not do that! If that were to happen all the young people would not be able to handle the freedom. They would just go crazy!”
Basically I said, ‘You just have to let them go.’
I shared this verse with them:
Hebrews 8:10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel After those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, And on their heart also will I write them: And I will be to them a God, And they shall be to me a people: (Philips)
Notice what I have underlined. God’s law was first chiseled into stone. Then the first five books of Moses were written and became known as ‘the law’.
This way of life for the Jews became law. Jesus nailed the law (as a way of life to be enforced), onto His cross.
Colossians 2:13 ¶ You, who were spiritually dead because of your sins and your uncircumcision, God has now made to share in the very life of Christ! He has forgiven you all your sins:
14 he has utterly wiped out the written evidence of broken commandments which always hung over our heads, and has completely annulled it by nailing it to the cross. (Philips)
The written law, the enforced law … was nailed to the cross. But in its place, God’s law (His way of life for us) is written in our hearts.
What is the difference? The law no longer is something you HAVE to do. When it is in your heart it is something that you WANT to do.
I asked this couple a question … "Would not the parents of these young people, who you think would just go absolutely wild without the ‘written law’ over their heads, would not the parents want to know whether or not God really has the hearts of their children?"
If God’s law, indeed, is written on their hearts, they will not go wild. If they do go wild, then you know that they really are not saved."
It is better to find that out early on, so that you know how to pray for them, and how to talk to them."
I think they agreed. But then surprised me with this:
They both agreed that everything in that binder should be burned except the part about women wearing a little white head covering.
I smiled and said, "No, even that part needed to go into the fire".
I am happy to say that they made a huge change in their lives from that point forward.
So God has put a pathway in front of you. It is the path of freedom. But at the same time, he calls on you to live by the law that He writes on your heart.
I will close this chapter with a verse that we will look at more closely in the next chapter.
5:16 I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
So next we will look at two extremes that Paul shows us,
- Walking in the flesh, lives that can be filled with a whole list of terrible practices
- Walking in the Spirit - filled with wonderful ‘fruit’
Freedom to walk in the Spirit. It’s a daily decision, really. Paul will bring this out in the next chapter.